Along with development of home delivery services and the rapid development of communication means such as the Internet, there is a growing form of purchasing merchandise in which merchandise ordered by a consumer through the Internet and the like is delivered to the consumer by a home delivery service.
Incidentally, regarding payment of the price for the merchandise delivered by the home delivery service, the consumer would pay to a home delivery contractor by cash on the doorstep or would pay through a credit card company with which a seller is affiliated.
However, on the part of the consumer, there may be the case where the consumer does not have the cash for the merchandise price. Meanwhile, on the part of the home delivery contractor, procedures become complicated when there is change involved, and management of the received cash and management of the change are also required.
Meanwhile, in the case of shopping at an Internet shopping mall established on the Internet, for example, when there is merchandise in a shop opened in the Internet shopping mall that the consumer wishes to order, the consumer places an order for the relevant merchandise on a screen of a personal computer (hereinafter referred to as a “PC”). Then, there appears a select screen for selecting either credit card settlement or cash-on-delivery settlement as a method of settling the price for the merchandise. If the consumer wishes the credit card settlement, the consumer selects the credit card settlement, and a screen appears for directing an input of a credit card number and for directing selection of a home delivery contractor who delivers the merchandise to the home of the consumer.
Thereafter, the consumer transmits through a network a credit card number of a credit card company or a money card number and a personal identification number of a financial institution, which the seller is affiliated with. As a result, the settlement is completed through the credit card company or the financial institution.
However, since important personal information such as a credit card number, a money card number and a personal identification number passes through the network or the seller, concern of information leakage arises.